Solace
by Sullen Syren
Summary: A tale of love, despair, and spirit. Just a one-shot for all you Haldir fans out there! R & R!!!!


Hello fellow Haldir fans! This is just a little one-shot I thought I'd write, chronicling his death (yeah, I know that was only in the movie, but what the hey? I'm a hopeless romantic!!) and how it affects those he leaves behind. Just a little plot-bunny that threatened to eat away at my brain till I put it down on paper.so enjoy, and review!  
  
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A fierce battle raged. Around him, men and Elves alike fell before the wrath of the enemy. He would never waver; he fought with such a ferocity as had never been witnessed by his people. A voice sounded, almost from a thousand leagues away, yet no more than mere strides. It was Elessar, calling for a retreat. Retreat. Never before had this proud warrior ever succumbed to such an insolent order. But now, in the face of this reckless and perilous advancement, he had no choice. He called out to his men, courageous and loyal, and asked of them the impossible: stand down. To turn and run, away from death, away from their fate, away from valour. They would not understand, but they would do as he had commanded. They were soldiers. As he watched the last retreat, the Uruks swarmed about him in such a fashion . But they would never stop, and his slightest inaccuracy allowed him to taste for the very first time the cruel bite of the Uruks blade.  
  
He felt a strange coldness embrace him, empty and desolate. But something else crept into this embrace, filling him with warmth and comfort. He could see her before him, and hear her ethereal voice calling to him. Images flashed passed his eyes, and he watched her, ever graceful and impossibly beautiful. She was laughing, resting her head against his chest, and he could feel the softness of her body pressed against his. They were lying in the soft grass that grew near the Nimrodel, the shade of the green trees allowing the sun to cast a glow of jade across both their faces. The breeze was gentle, caressing his skin. He closed his eyes, letting her calming voice, her gentle song, lull him to sleep. But in that moment she was gone, stolen away as the sun fades to emptiness when eve approaches. Yet he remained, no longer surrounded by death, by desolation and despondency. No longer lying cold in the torn and ravaged earth, victim to the atrocities of war. Instead he found himself again in a meadow of eternal afterlife, the trees not fading, the sun never waning. And there he waited, until such time as he could live unto hold her again.  
  
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In Lothlorien, city of the eternal lifeblood of the world, the handmaiden Isawen waited on her Lady Galadriel, unaware and yet completely conscious of the events unfolding so far away from her, so far away as to seem almost immaterial to her own being. But he was out there, and she knew, deep within her essence, that he would not return. It was at this moment, as she mused over the fate of her lover, so uncertain and unbalanced, that she felt her heart slow in her chest, and the pain of her people so acutely at this moment, when all the world seemed to slip into an icy and unforgiving blackness, fuelled by an inconceivable loss that even she would never wish comprehend. And sorrow enveloped her soul, and she never again reclaimed the freedom of her spirit.  
  
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There she stood, so noble and ethereal, yet so bowed with incomprehensible sorrow, in an archway of weeping ivy, that fell in such a way to mimic the teardrops that had so unrelentingly adorned her face. Upon her brow graced a delicate band of stars, under which a silk veil fell, masking eyes spent of tears. Yet even in her sorrow she remained beautiful, like a pale moon still glowing amid night's eternal darkness. Around her, mourners fell silent as they watched her advance before her husband's pyre, the black folds of her dress flowing behind her, and she seemed to float. As she came upon him, she slipped back the drape that hid her face, and placed a single, longing kiss atop Haldir's cool lips. "Namarie," she whispered, smiling down at his handsome countenance, undiminished by even bereavement. And tears began to fall freely from her eyes; eyes that she had expected would never again be able to shed such emotion, too exhausted by a pain and yearning for that which would never come.  
  
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The ceremonial grey cloak trailed behind her as she glided onto the ship, unwillingly but never allowing her form to betray it. She turned, to gaze one last time, upon the land and everything she had ever held dear fade before her as the ship bore her away to the Undying Lands. Silent tears, a testament to her strength and vulnerability, flowed down her cheeks, as the wind lashed out, golden strands of hair whipping a face partially obscured by a grey hood. And so her life waned on, as the beating of her heart faded into near silence.  
  
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She felt her heart surrender its will to pound beneath her flesh, as she lay there on the dais of stone, eyes gracing the peaks of the fair trees one final time. And at length she sheltered her eyes from the world that had come to appear so forbidding and merciless, as a rose bud relinquishes its splendour as the falling night bids it sleep. As she fell away, autumn leaves began descend towards the earth, mourning the departure of the exonerating warmth of summer and the approaching chill of winter. And there she lay, under the fading trees, until she was the last of her people to remain here, beauty undimmed despite the passage of years.  
  
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The wind rustled through the golden crowns of the trees, running its formless fingers through her hair. And the wind brought on it the sound of her greatest joy- her lover's voice. She followed it, running with the flight of the zephyr carrying her. She ran, ran until the wind ceased to gust. She came upon a clearing, revelling in the feeling of the soft grass beneath her feet. The soothing rush of water, the Nimrodel, sounded from a distance. She looked, looked for any sign of the being whose voice she had followed so relentlessly across the world of the living and that of the Valar.  
  
And it was here that she found him, waiting for her under the mellan trees. She ran to him, and found his arms wrap around her for the first time in a great passage of years. She looked upon him with great elation, both falling into the paradise escape of each other's eyes, just as they had when they first met. He kissed her then, with the same all-consuming passion he had the very first time. They rejoiced in their reunion, laughing, running, their voices echoing through the silence and awakening the full beauty of their clandestine world.  
  
And at length, as the day waned, they lay to rest under the jade shadow cast by the treetops. The sun shone brightly still, its reflection causing a shimmering cosmos to dance across the face of the Nimrodel. "My love for you," he whispered to her quietly, "Shall never wane, under neither sunlight nor midnight." She kissed him tenderly, answering, "And mine for you shall withstand all the passages of time in this world, from now unto the breaking of it." She laid her head upon his chest, and began to sing softly, until both fell into a deep and final slumber that they took to be a blissful dream. And it was here that they remained for eternity, Isawen and Haldir resting peacefully in each other's arms under the shade of the mellan trees. 


End file.
